Parental Misperceptions of Their Offspring’s Weight and Their Strategies for Child’s Eating Behavior: A Narrative Review of the Recent Evidence

Gketsios, Ioannis; Foscolou, Alexandra; Vassilakou, Tonia; Panagiotakos, Demosthenes Β.; Kosti, Rena I.

doi:10.3390/children9101565

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(76 reference statements)

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“…Previous research has revealed that mothers who are prejudiced against their weight and nutritional behaviour may negatively affect their children's eating behaviour (20). If the mother overestimates her child's weight when the child is at an average weight, she may make excessive restrictions for her child to lose weight (17,19).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This appraisal may encourage the mother to overfeed the child to bring him/her to the weight that she perceives as healthy, which may lead the healthy child to become overweight (17,18). On the other hand, if a normalweight child is regarded as overweight by the caregiver, the child may face food intake and essential nutrient restrictions, leading to malnutrition or eating behaviour disorders (5,17,19,20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opinions of Mothers About the Weights of Their Preschool Children and Its Relationship with Their Own Body Perceptions

Erkan,

Velipaşaoğlu

2024

Türkiye Çocuk Hast Derg

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Objective: Misperception of children’s weight status by their mothers, either lower or higher than it actually is, can lead to incorrect nutrition practices and health problems. This study aimed to evaluate mothers’ perceptions about their children’s weight and their own weight and determine the sociodemographic factors that may influence their perception. Material and Methods: The research was a cross-sectional study involving 170 children aged 2-5 and their mothers. For the study, mothers’ and children’s heights and weights were measured; questionnaires containing verbal (5-point Likert type scale) and visual scales (Toddler Silhouette Scale for children, Contour Drawing Rating Scale for mothers) were administered to mothers to understand their perception of themselves and their children. Results: As the children’s weight-for-height percentile increased, the mothers’ accuracy rate in verbal and visual assessment of their children’s weight decreased, making them more prone to underestimate the child’s weight. On verbal scale, mothers of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese children had an accuracy rate of 53.19%, 71.72%, 31.25%, and 0%, respectively, in defining the children’s weight status. On visual scale, these rates were 72.34%, 54.55%, 12.50% and 0%, respectively. Overweight and obese mothers were less accurate than others at verbal and visual self-assessment of their own weight. Verbal and visual self-assessment accuracy rates were 100% and 75% in underweight mothers, 75.36% and 89.86% in mothers with normal weight, 47.46% and 32.20% in overweight mothers, and 34.21% and 23.68% in obese mothers. No significant relation was found between the mothers’ perceptions of their own weight and their children’s weights. Conclusion: We observed problems related to their mothers’ interpretation of children’s weight status. We could not identify any sociodemographic risk factor that could explain the inaccurate perception of the mothers. Since mothers may not be able to perceive problems related to their child’s weight and express them as problems, we recommend that paediatricians measure each child’s height and weight and evaluate their percentiles.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%